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How To Study The Bible

All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Before beginning this study, I suggest you pray and ask God to guide you through this study. I also suggest that you do you own study of this material in order to ensure its accuracy.
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ote: How-to Bible study guides abound in Bible bookstores. Perhaps you should go and look at some of them and you may find one that will help you. Additionally, I will give you an idea of how I study.

Let us take a moment to discuss Bible software. If you do not have a Bible program on your computer, there are a couple of free ones available on the net. One is the Online Bible. You can get basic software free, several free translations, and other free add-ons, such as commentaries, at http://www.onlinebible.org. All you do is download the software, install it, and you will have a working Bible program on your computer. Another source for free software is eSword. I personally use eSword for most of my Bible Study. It is available at www.e-sword.net.

Begin your Bible study by assembling your resources. Listed below are a just a few I suggest. Not all resources available are listed here. This is just a sample. You need not have all of the resources listed; a few will do. Most of these are available electronically online. I will not place links on this page because they are subject to change. Most of them can be found at Crosswalk.com and Studylight.org. Use a search engine to find those resources not available at either of these sites.

Lexicons
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon
Thayer Greek Lexicon
W.E.Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words
Strong's Concordance
Young's Concordance
Gesenius Lexicon
BDAG Greek Lexicon
The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT)

Dictionaries/Encyclopedias
The Pictorial Bible Dictionary
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Holman Bible Dictionary
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Hitchcock's Bible Dictionary
King's Bible Dictionary
The Layman's Bible Encyclopedia
Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia
The Complete Word Study Dictionary
The Catholic Encyclopedia

Interlinears
Green's Interlinear Bible
Online Interlinear Hebrew & Greek Bibles

Commentaries
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Adam Clarke
Matthew Henry
James Burton Coffman
John Gill
John Calvin
Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Wesley
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A good study Bible with study notes

It is not necessary to have all of these tools. Have one good dictionary, one good lexicon, one good concordance, and at least one extra translation of the Bible. Again most of these tools are available on the internet. With a high-speed internet connection, the online resources are easy to use.

efore starting a Bible study, I pray (and so should you) for guidance. I begin by reading the passage I want to study in several different translations. I use the KJV as my base and authority. I test all other translations against the KJV. Then I read it again in the KJV. Then do a verse by verse study. IMPORTANT; do not lose sight of the context of each verse. Make sure you keep in mind what is going on in the phrases, verses, and chapters before and after the verse you are studying. A verse out of context might say something that it was not meant to say in context.

For an example, let us refer to Revelation 4:1. "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." There are many people that take the words "come up hither" out of context and apply them to the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. They say that "come up hither" is God's command that begins the secret rapture. Of course, the secret pre-tribulation rapture of the church is a false teaching (the Return will not be in secret). But this will suffice for our example. The context of the verse is what is happening in Revelation chapter 4. In that chapter, John is given a vision of Heaven and of the future. The context of the previous three chapters is that John is "in the spirit" while Jesus Christ is dictating letters to the church. John is already in the spirit, which means that his body is on Patmos but his consciousness is in Heaven. We must remember that context—John is in the spirit and not in the body.

The context of the phrase preceding the one in question is that John and John only is being called by a Voice from Heaven. The next verse says that immediately he was taken in the spirit to the throne in Heaven. So, based on the context, what does the phrase "come up hither" refer to? It refers to John and John only. God spoke to John and John only and took John and John only into heaven in the spirit. He did not say to the entire church, "come up hither." So the phrase cannot be applied to the gathering of the saints back to Christ.

One other consideration. The pre-trib rapture teachers correctly say, based on First Thessalonians 4:15, that when we are gathered to Christ we will be changed into our incorruptible or spiritual bodies. The key word is body. John was in the spirit, that is, out of his flesh body but not in his spiritual or incorruptible body. His flesh body remained alive on Patmos. Based on the context, and on other related scripture, we can conclude that John was not "changed in the twinkling of an eye" into his heavenly body. He was just having a vision. This cannot be correctly applied to the gathering of the saints to Christ.

We learned something in our example. Many single scriptures in the Bible have related scriptures elsewhere in the Bible and that related scripture can help us understand the passage we are studying. An excellent tool for finding related scripture is the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK). The TSK is available in book form, in electronic form, and online. A good cross-referenced Bible either uses the TSK for its cross-references, or a similar cross-reference. Those cross-references can be invaluable in getting the meaning of a passage. But they are not exhaustive. There are many other scriptures that are possibly related. That is where a concordance comes in handy. Sometimes you can find related passages with a word lookup in the concordance. A computer search does this in an instant. Another tool for finding related scripture is a topic-based index like Nave's Topical Bible. It too is available in book form, electronic form, and online. With it you can look up related scripture by topic.

Now let's talk a bit about exegesis. I firmly believe that the original scriptures in their original languages are important. We want to attempt to understand what the men who wrote wanted to say. Some of the sense of what the writers wanted to say is lost in translation. I do not wish to get into the KJV controversy here other that to say that the King James Version is not, in my belief, the ONLY inspired English translation of the Bible. It is the best in my book, but not the only. Real objective evidence does not suggest that that is true (a study for another time). The argument that the KJV is easier to memorize is spurious and emotional but not objective. I believe that the majority Greek texts are the closest to the original. The KJV Translation comes basically form the Massoretic and Majority texts and that is why I like it best. Thus you may say that I believe in the preservation of Scripture to all generations, and I believe that God preserved the Scriptures in the Massoretic Hebrew texts and the Majority Greek texts.

It is therefore, important to take into consideration the original texts when elucidating scripture. Many idioms, Hebraisms, and Hellenisms do not come through the translation process. We need to understand what those idiomatic phrases meant to the man who wrote the particular passage. Here is a modern example. In English we say "You're pulling my leg!" Every Englishman and every English-speaking American understands that that statement is not to be taken literally. It really means "You're trying to mislead me!" No one is physically pulling your leg. But would a non-English speaking person understand? Perhaps, but it is unlikely. In Spanish an idiom with the same exact meaning is "¡No me tómes el pelo!" It has the same meaning as "You're pulling my leg!" but it literally translates to "Don't pull my hair!" If you don't speak Spanish or have never taken Spanish lessons, you would not have known that. That is a graphic illustration of the difficulties in translation pertaining to idiomatic usage of the language.

There are books available that explain the idiomatic usage of words and phrases. Figures of speech are also important in discerning the idiomatic meaning of words and phrases. One readily available book on idioms is George M. Lamsa's Idioms In The Bible Explained and A Key To The Original Gospels. Another book that explains idioms and figures of speech as well is The Companion Bible by E.W.Bullinger. Both are available at Amazon.com. See Recommended Reading Materials. While I am not a Dispensationalist as was Bullinger, I still find his work to be of invaluable help. Not only does Bullinger explain many idioms in the margin of the KJV Bible, he has almost 200 appendixes explaining many Bible difficulties. There is an appendix that fully explains all figures of speech used in the Bible.

Understanding idioms is important, but most of all, it would be helpful to know the definitions of individual words in the original language. That is where a lexicon helps. A lexicon, however, is usually limited to the basic unassociated word without inflection. The different senses, conjugations, voices, tenses, moods, etc. are not usually discernable from a lexicon. A lexicon also gives a base definition and several synonymous words. Not every definition can be used in every case (as some attempt to do). The different shadings of a word are always discerned from the word in context and properly conjugated. Some lexicons, like Brown-Driver-Briggs include helps for the various inflections and senses of words. The most common lexicon is Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. It is a good one because it is readily available and inexpensive. But it does not help us to understand the conjugation, inflection, or sense of a word. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words helps with this task as does Robertson's Word Pictures. Both are available online. An outstanding electronic collection of works that will give all the proper inflections of a word in context is Bible Works, which can be found at Recommended Reading Materials.

The only real way to be able to understand the sense of the words is to take a course in Biblical Hebrew or Biblical Greek and learn the language. That might be impractical. You can at least get a Hebrew or Greek grammar book to help you discern the inflection. This assumes, of course that you are able to read the Hebrew and Greek characters. That is not as daunting as it sounds. With a little practice anyone can learn the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. Just get a copy of the alphabet and the names and sounds and practice. I have provided the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. They are available as HTML and as a PDF. You will need the free Acrobat Reader for the PDF document. Click here for HTML and here for PDF.

Now we are ready for exegesis. To properly understand a passage, we must be able to determine its sense. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "Exegesis is the branch of theology which investigates and expresses the true sense of Sacred Scripture." Let us assume we have read the passage we wish to study. We have read it in other translations and we have defined the major words and found their meanings in a lexicon. We want to investigate it and try to express its true sense. We must make sense of each verse; we are ready to do our exegesis. Let us take a passage of scripture for analysis:

For our example, we will only use the first phrase of the passage for analysis: "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because". Upon look up in our concordance and lexicon, we find that the word for spirit is ruach, the word for Lord is 'adonay, the word for GOD is Yehovah, the word for upon me 'al, and the word for because is ya'an. We have only located the unassociated words in our lexicon. We do not know the inflection of them from the lexicon. But from the Interlinear Bible, we find that the unassociated form of each word is the actual use of the words in the text, which are "rwkh 'adny YHVH". Ruach means several things. Strong gives this definition: "wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; fig. life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extens. a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions)" It is obvious from the context that the word "spirit" fits here. The wind of the Lord, for example, isn't correct. 'Adonay means lord in the sense that God is Lord or He is in control of us. GOD in all caps is the KJV way of rendering the covenant Name of God, Yehovah, when the phrase "Lord GOD" is used. So far we literally have, "The Spirit of the Lord Yehovah…" That was a fairly easy analysis. But the next few words present more of a problem.

According to the concordance and lexicon the words in the KJV, "is upon me because" all seem to come from the unassociated words, 'al and ya'an. The concordance defines ya'an as "to pay attention; properly heed; by implication purpose (sake or account); used as an adverb to indicate the reason or cause." 'Al means above over or on. From the interlinear we learn that the actual text is 'aly y'an, meaning literally "upon me because". We find in our Hebrew grammar that adding the syllable yod, changes the meaning from "on" to "on me". So 'Aly means over me or above me or on me. From the context we must choose on me. So, we find that the KJV rendering of "the spirit of the Lord Yehovah is on me" is correct with very little room for error, comment, or bias.

Here are the exact Hebrew words used in the phrase in English letters but in Hebrew order: na'y yla' HVHY ynda' khwr, or in English order, rwkh 'adny YHVH 'aly y'an. Transliterated the words read ruach adonay Yehovah ali ya'an. I won't list them in Hebrew font because your computer may not have my Hebrew font and that will make the words look like a jumble of letters and characters to you. I do not speak or read Hebrew, but I was able to transliterate the letters from the actual Hebrew because I have taught myself to read the Hebrew characters. You can do the same.

It is also important that we determine if the passage is to be taken literally or figuratively. I completely disagree with those (mostly Dispensationalists) who say that the only way to interpret the Bible is literally and historically. That is patently incorrect. Let me give you an example of a passage that should be understood literally and historically.

This is a historical account of the death of Saul and his armor bearer. We should take it literally because it is a literal factual account of a historical event in the Bible. We should not take this figuratively. And yet, there is still an allegorical overtone. The allegory is that when we disobey God, we will suffer the consequences.

Here is an example of a verse that should be taken figuratively and not literally. Let us first examine a larger portion of the passage to get a sense of the context:

Now let us look at just a portion of this passage: "{7} So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. {8} And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. {9} Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. {10} So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

This passage cannot be taken literally. Ezekiel did not see dead men's bones come together and then see the muscle, sinew and flesh come upon them. This was a vision. It did not literally happen. This is easy to understand because the passage is obviously figurative and the next verse tell us it is: "Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts." (Ezekiel 37:11). The bones are a metaphor for Israel. But let us look at a passage that is not so easily determined.

I have heard many sermons and read many commentaries and Bible studies that say that one of the reasons that God exiled Israel from her land was because the Israelites committed adultery, that is they were always having extramarital affairs. It is certainly true that there were Israelites that had adulterous affairs with women other than their wives. Literally it seems that the Bible is saying just that. But that is a false assumption. The Bible is not, I repeat, not talking about extramarital affairs here. This passage cannot be take literally. If you take it literally, you will miss the sense of the passage. The real meaning, which is the figurative meaning, is that Israel had been worshipping other gods and that is why God expelled them from the land. When we see the word adultery in the Prophets, it really means idolatry. It was adultery in God's eyes because Israel was unfaithful to Him. As proof that I am speaking the truth, look at this verse: "That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them." (Ezekiel 23:37). Ezekiel explains here that the adultery he is talking about is the worship of idols, and in this verse, especially the god Molech, to which they sacrificed their children in the fire burning in the idol's belly.

Here is some more help. The Bible is written on several different levels. That is why we can get deeper and deeper spiritual understanding when the read and reread a passage of scripture. The more we mature in the Word and the more often we read a passage, the more we learn from it. Here is a way to understand this. Thomas Aquinas, one of the church fathers, developed this method. It is called the four senses of Scripture.

According to Thomas Aquinas, there are four levels or ways to understand any given scripture passage from the Bible. This applies to the entire body of scripture including both Testaments, the History, the Psalms, the Prophecies, the Gospels, the Epistles and the other Writings. These levels are:

Simplified to their basic elements, the literal teaches one the facts surrounding the specific event. The allegorical teaches what you should understand about those facts. The moral teaches what action one should take concerning the passage. The anagogical teaches one about the spiritual aspects of the passage. In other words, the first tells us the plain facts, the second gives us understanding of why those facts are present; the moral tells what to do about it; the anagogical points one to the ultimate spiritual sense of the passage.

Let us take one short passage and simplistically apply these elements to it.

The literal facts of this passage are that one must come out of and be separate from the world.

The allegorical tells one that one must be separate from the world. Literally it is impossible to separate from the world because we are bound to this planet. And even astronauts have a constant connection to the planet. One must figuratively (hence the allegorical) separate himself from the world. One must take pains to not be like those who are in the world.

The moral aspect tells us not to do the things that the world considers moral, but that God considers immoral. Do what God says is moral.

The anagogical tells us that God is with us in spirit and His Spirit is in us and does not wish us to conform to the ungodly world standard. We are going to eventually come into God's Heavenly presence and no impurity is allowed there. What we do in the physical realm affects what happens in the spiritual realm. Finally, what is done in the spiritual realm matters, as we will ultimately be in that realm. And in that ultimate realm, we will be truly separated from conformity with the world.

Of course, much more can be said of these matters, but this brief sketch is to enable you to see how these levels of biblical understanding actually work.

To summarize, here are the basic steps to Bible study in a bulleted list

• Pray for guidance and understanding before you begin.
• Read the passage.
• Read the passage in other translations.
• Understand the context—know the subject of the passage.
• Analyze the meanings of the individual words.
• Try to find out the inflection, the conjugation, and/or the sense of each word.
  Use an Interlinear Bible, a grammar, or a resource that gives this information.
• Try to deduce what the word means in context based on its definition.
• Find and read as many related passages of scripture as possible.
• Consult a Bible dictionary to further define the words.
• Consult a commentary or two to see what others have deduced about the text.
• Use any other resources available, such as The Companion Bible, or a book on Hebrew or Greek idioms, etc. to further understand the verse.
• Research the passage in as many ways as you can. For example, use a search engine and see on the internet what others have understood about the passage. Go to the library and use resources there. Ask others what their understanding of the passage is. Ask God to reveal His meaning to you.
• If you are still unsure of the meaning, you may just have to leave it for awhile and wait for God to reveal the meaning to you.

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Copyright © 2001, The Bible Church. All Rights Reserved. Contents may be distributed but not sold.
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The content of this study (with the exception of any scripture or quote) is the sole production of Pastor Mark Oaks and is subject to change as the pastor grows and learns.